Broadside entitled 'Suicide of Wm. Pollock!'

Transcription

Suicide of Wm. Pollock!

A Full True and Particular Account of the Suicide committed byWILLIAM POLLOCK, in the Jail of Edinburgh, yester-day morning, the 20th March 1826, who was condemned tohe Fxecuted here tomorrow (Wednesday the 22d current) forthe Murder of his own Wife; together with a copy of hisLETTER to Mr Young, Governor of the Jail, &c..

A Most extraordinary circumstance took place in the Jail of Edinburgh yes-terday morning, Monday the 20th March 1826. Pollock, the man whowas under sentence of Death for the Murder of his Wife, and who was to havesuffered the last punishment of the law tomorrow morning, strangled himself inhis cell with a portion of his own shirt.

At eight o'clock, the upper turnkey visited Pollock, and cleaned his cell. Theprisoner then said he felt more easy, and in better spirits. When breakfast wastaken to him, about half past nine, he was found dead, but not quite cold. Hehad torn out the. back of his shirt, and. a strip from the side of a blanket, andthese he twisted in the form of a small rope, and fastened to the cross-bar of atable...a piece of wood about fifteen inches long, and a quarter of an inchthick....which he had laid across the ventilator of his cell, a small circle of 18inches diameter, formed in the wall, which separates the apartment from thepassage. The height of this ventilator is only 6 feet 4 inches or thereabouts,from the floor of the cell, but between it and the floor is the bed, a thick oakplank, on which the unhappy man lay, and likewise the gaud or iron bar towhich he was fastened. He had adjusted his bed-clothes, however, so as to en-tangle his feet, and prevent them reaching the ground, when he threw himselfoff. He had also drawn a rug between the gaud and the ring of his fetters, toprevent noise. Indeed, the whole circumstances evinced a degree of determi-nation and deliberation that is surprising.

Pollock left three letters, and a scrap of paper containing an inventory of hiseffects in the jail ;?these he wished to be given to his son. The letters wereall of nearly the same tenor : in them he admits the guilt of suicide, but statesthat he could not endure the thought of suffering on the scaffold for a crime he" could not bring his mind to believe he was guilty of." To Mr Young, theGovernor, he writes,?" Excuse this rash act; when you consider all, you willsee there is good intentions, though not towards myself.'

Pollock has, throughout the whole course of his confinement, conducted him-self very quietly, but always denied the murder, and appeared rather irritated whentaxed with it He has been attended by the Rev. Dr Lee since his condemnation.